Whale injured here dying off Cape Cod

The endangered mammal was hit by a yacht in March off the Georgia coast.

Posted: Friday, September 09, 2005

A right whale that was struck by a yacht off the Georgia coast in March appears to be dying from that injury.

A tuna spotter sighted a "tired and battered" right whale off the northern tip of Cape Cod late last week. The whale was emaciated and lethargic, with skin that looked gray, rather than a healthy black, and a chunk was missing from its left tail fluke.

Researchers identified it as Right Whale No. 2425, the 11-year-old female that was struck by the propeller of a 43-foot yacht near Cumberland Island on March 10.

At the time of the strike, researchers were hopeful the whale might survive the injury, which consisted of a torn, though not quite severed tail.

"We assumed that if it didn't bleed out it would be OK," said Clay George, a wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. "Other whales in the photo ID catalog have received similar trauma (and survived)."

George said the animal had been sighted numerous times after the strike as she made her way from the calving grounds off Georgia to the feeding area in New England.

She was initially seen traveling with another adult right whale. Curiously, she was sighted last week in the company of an apparently healthy humpback whale.

Such behavior is odd, said Amy Knowlton, a research scientist at the New England Aquarium.

"Perhaps it was just an animal curious about a slow moving animal," she said.

Northern right whales, which are so named because they were once the "right" whale to catch, are highly endangered with an estimated 325-350 remaining.

The past year has been an especially difficult one for the tiny population.

In addition to No. 2425, eight adult whales, including six females, three of them pregnant, have died in the last 16 months.

Tony LaCasse, a spokesman for the New England Aquarium, said No. 2425 was probably dying from a systemic infection stemming from the injury in March.

"This animal looks near death," he said.

Orange patches on the whale's back indicate an infestation of whale lice that are unable to build up on a healthy, fast-swimming whale. He likened the loss of her tail fluke to the partial amputation of a leg.

Knowlton, who was surprised the whale was in such poor condition, speculated that she weakened as she traveled back north, still bleeding. Whales don't eat when they're in their winter calving grounds.

The New England Aquarium is calling for tighter restrictions on boat speeds in areas where whales are known to be.

"There's little we can do for this animal," LaCasse said. "What this speaks to is the need for speed restrictions in areas where we have right whales."

Such restrictions have been proposed in the National Marine Fisheries Service Right Whale Management Plan, but that plan has been slow to come to fruition, according to LaCasse.

The calving areas off north Florida and southern Georgia are a good example of the immediate need for tighter rules, he said.

"There's a good chance this could've been avoided if we had speed restrictions in that area."